


A More Reliable Narrator

by Johnlocked Daisy (phoenixdaisy)



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Extended Mind Palace, Fix-It, Gen, Tin Hatting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9390401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixdaisy/pseuds/Johnlocked%20Daisy
Summary: Series 4 is entirely a head-trip, but Sherlock doesn't realize it just yet. He's lucid dreaming in a drug-induced coma, trying to make sense of the things John is telling him.





	1. The Six Thatchers

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this before stumbling over EMP (Extended Mind Palace) meta. As such, this version of EMP exploration only covers from TAB (which is known canon EMP and not included here) and onward. There will be another note at the end of chapter 3, explaining why it's the shortest chapter. This whole thing is pretty short, and already complete, though I'll be posting it over the next few days while we wait to see if there's going to be a fourth episode.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I still can't believe you fucking overdosed on the plane." John's voice is angry, but resigned. "I'll visit regularly and tell you what's going on, but without you being out there, I don't know how interesting it will be for you. I guess if you get bored enough, you might figure out how to wake back up, won't you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you just skipped the chapter summary, read it anyway.

Nothing has come of the Moriarty video that got your plane turned around. Mycroft insists that Moriarty is actually dead, but he wasn't above using it to turn your plane around. Magnussen's death has been rewritten. No pardon needed, you didn't actually shoot him. Instead it's being blamed on an itchy trigger finger on one of the snipers that had surrounded us.

Mary thinks she's so clever. She's trying to do The Work for you. Chasing around a pregnant woman who acts like you without actually knowing how to do proper deductions is actually really tedious. I've been showing her printouts of low rated emails and letting her solve them. She's worked up to reliably doing fours now.

Mary tried to figure out how a kid who was supposed to be in Tibet was found dead in his own car a week after his dad's birthday recently. The only thing we know for sure is that the kid died within an hour of talking to his dad internationally over Skype, but his car was hit and then caught fire a week later, and his body was found in the car at that point. She noted that there being two different kinds of vinyl in the car was important, but she couldn't explain why.

Do you remember the Six Thatchers case we did four years ago? Well, something similar has come up again. A series of limited edition Napoleon busts, broken in or near the homes of their owners. It was a set of ten, but ironically only six got destroyed. We have no idea what was in them, though Greg heard a rumour it might have been that black pearl of the Borgias you kept turning down last year.

Mary's went into labour early this morning. I wanted to ask you to be her godfather, but we'd settled on Mrs. Hudson and Molly since you're in this damned coma.  
Her name was Rosamund Mary Watson. She was–

Mary and I aren't getting much sleep. We're barely talking, really. I spend most of my time at 221B or the clinic. She's still on medical leave.

Mary's vanished. I planted a tracker on her A.G.R.A. flash drive. Seeing as the one she gave me before only had information about her mercenary work for the British Government and some fake identities, I figure this other one must have whatever it was Magnussen had on her.

Mary got shot. It was surreal: blood splatter, her body flying backwards, and a goodbye monologue that lasted nearly two minutes. I'll let you make of that what you will, but it _should be_ pretty obvious. As for the shooter, turns out the British Government had a traitorous secretary. Her orders were the ones that compromised Mary's mercenary group, who were apparently each known by one of the initials for AGRA. Mary was "R" apparently, and then she just had to name our daughter herself. Vivian Norbury was arrested on treason charges, and she might get charged with Mary Watson's murder as well.


	2. The Lying Detective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Your hospitalisation has finally hit the news. Everyone keeps commenting to me about blog awkwardly, like they are waiting for me to update it with the status of your coma or something," John admits with a small groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Conversation with Nurse Cornish lifted from [ Ariane DeVere's transcripts](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/89793.html) with many thanks.

With Mary gone and you in hospital I've been at a bit of loose ends. I've been seeing a new therapist. Mrs Hudson's trying to convince me to sell my flat I lived in with Mary and to come back to Baker Street. I've put her off, even though I wouldn't live with anyone but you. Not anyone. When you wake up, I'll come home if you want.

Do you know who Culverton Smith is? He's this media personality, known for charity work besides. He's doing this bizarre ad campaign where he calls himself a serial killer, except he's means breakfast cereal. He actually made a public announcement that he'd hoped to engage your services for his ads, except you're in a coma. How exactly would he have done that, anyway, convince you he's actually a serial killer?

_"You involved much?"_  
_"Sorry?"_  
_"Um, with Mr Holmes – Sherlock and all his cases?"_  
_"Uh, yeah. I'm John Watson."_  
_"Okay."_  
_"_ Doctor _Watson."_  
_"I love his blog, don't you?"_  
_"_ His _blog?"_  
_"Oh, don't you read it?"_  
_"You mean_ my _blog." There's a pause. "It's_ my _blog."_  
_"It's yours?"_  
_"Yes."_  
_"You write Sherlock's blog?"_  
_"Yes."_  
_"It's ... gone downhill a little bit, hasn't it?"_

Remember how I was talking about Culverton Smith? He invited me to visit the Children's ward of the hospital with him. He actually donated enough for an entire new wing. To be honest, Smith's a bit creepy. After talking to the kids a little about cases we used to do, he invited me to see his favourite room in the hospital. It was the mortuary.

_"Oh my god, I love your blog!"_  
_"Thank you."_

Oh, that creep. He mentioned you again after my appearance with him at the Children's ward. Said he wanted to see about having you moved to his favourite room. I told Greg about it, but I don't have any proof that it was a death threat. There's no records of unsolved murders, and he sells himself by being a little bit creepy.

_"Wait, that's Sherlock Holmes! So you must be- I love your blog!"_

Greg managed to set up a sting operation. He was recorded confessing his intent to kill someone in ICU. It seems that now he just can't stop confessing. He's claiming a lot of people previously believed to have died due to medical complications or equipment fault. I'm just glad that when he tried coming in here, I was already with you.


	3. The Final Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know how I mentioned the new therapist? She reminds me of you a bit." John chuckles slightly. "She's definitely more observant than Ella was, at any rate."

Everything's gone quiet again. I guess I'll tell you about movies I've seen recently? I don't think I've made you watch the latest Bond movie yet….

So, the movie I watched last night was about this crazy killer, who trapped a group of people in a series of puzzle rooms….

Another horror story, this one about a little girl who's not a sweet as she initially seems….

"Sherlock," this time he hears Lestrade's voice instead of John's. "Someone's shot John. You need to wake up!"

**Author's Note:**

> So, by the time I posted the first chapter of this fic on Thursday (which was when I finished up chapters two and three) I started reading "TFP is John's TAB" meta theories. So, there's very little to this chapter because 1) TFP doesn't make sense in any way that can be explained like the previous two chapters, and 2) it takes place in John's Mind Bungalow instead of Sherlock's Mind Palace. The vague movie references (I've not actually seen most (any?) of the movies referenced in TFP personally) are to imply more what was on John's mind than suggest that Sherlock constructed the absurdity that was TFP. Really, while the third episode was the one with the most glaringly obvious absurdities, I wasn't sure how to approach it from where I'd started the first chapter.


End file.
